Hunted in Three Ways
by ShamelessDilettante
Summary: This world is a fantasy. A world with three Planes. The existances of those that dwell in this world have Laws placed on them which must never be broken. Only one has ever broken them, the One who can grant a wish, any wish. Its a game to hunt him down. There are three of him yet only one of him. Fantasy AU. Dark.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N** Writing something new, again, with a brain that is drastically lacking sleep. Although, I hope you find this interesting. ^^

**Warnings: Gore, Blood, non-sexual nudity, Dark-themes, violence.  
**

**Disclaimer: I don't own KHR**

This world is a fantasy, a world with three Planes. Where horrendous creatures of all kinds dwelled in the Mortal plane. The Winged resided in the Upper. And the Damned fought within the Lower.

Those that dwelled in the Mortal plane may not pass into the other planes without dying. Yet those that dwell in the Upper and Lower planes may pass into the Mortal plane for a price; a small treasured trinket, the skull of an extinct animal, gems that hear and see, along with their Immortality.

There is only One who breaks the laws that govern this world unbeknownst to many of the residents. He dwells in all three worlds. How? Well, there are three of him, yet the three are one and the same. The only ones who know of his existence are the leaders of the Upper and Lower planes as well as the current rulers of the Mortal plane.

He is The One prophesised to be able to grant a wish. A singular wish of your deepest desire. And so it becomes a game; who would discover the law breaker first? Who would be the first to make him, break him or devour him?

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**Mortal Plane**

A small lion cub leaps through the gaps between the crowds, a tuna clutched within his small jaw. His frame is small, underfed, his mane and tail tip of bright orange flame. His fur would be a sleeked gold hue if not for the fact it was covered in small scrapes, bruises and dirt. A creature with a moose-like head, leathery skin, and clawed feet reminiscent of a the reptiles of old was chasing him screaming profanities in the Common tongue pushing folk rudely out of the way.

But the feline is quick on his feet despite the oversized kitten paws and the crowd does not hinder him as much due to the fact he's the size of a cat. So he turns sharp corners, leaping up bins, rusted stairways and ladders to make it to the roof tops, the echoing calls of 'Thief! Catch that damn cat!' follow him as he leaps across a gap, only just reaching the opposite shingled roof before a tile makes him lose his footing. Yelping he hangs over the edge gritting canine teeth as he sinks his claws into the metal water catchment that lines the edge of the roof, using what meagre strength he had to scramble his way up.

The shouts are gone now as he makes his way toward his hideout; leaping over precarious gaps between buildings and scrabbling up slanted roof tops. Ignoring the yellow tape with 'Danger' inscribed on it in big bold letters, he scrambles through a broken window into an abandoned dilapidated apartment building. The sounds of bones cracking and flesh ripping echo in the hollow building, before stopping, the only sounds a soft breath panting in exertion and fatigue.

In the small room that belonged to the window that the lion cub had crawled through, a small, pale, human-like body lay on a dirty mattress. His skin is dirt covered, pale and sickly, bruises and scrapes littered here and there. Malnourished, his ribs stand out under thin skin. Gold eyes with a hint of orange gaze blankly at the grey scale walls. A fish is clutched in his hands. As his breathing evened out, he pushed himself up. Knowing he should eat what he managed to get before the rodents came for it.

Gold ears peeked out of his cinnamon gravity defying hair. And his tail, an orange flame at the end, curled around to his front, covering him for modesty's sake even though he knew nobody would be watching. He tugged out an old makeshift gas stove, lighting a small flame with his tail. And went about cooking his meal. Shivering from the cold he reached over to the side to tug a worn moth eaten cloth over his body.

He had no idea why he had this body of his, nobody he'd seen had ever had two forms, and the only creatures he knew of that had a form similar to his now were the leaders of this Plane; Xanxus and Byakuran. The two leaders were rumoured to have Crossed from the Lower and Upper planes respectively, which is apparently the reason why they had this strange furless body.

But he knew he wasn't one of the ones who had Crossed, otherwise he would remember doing it, wouldn't he? Besides, he was born. He was sure of it. Even though the only remnants to parents he had was a lone silver ring, heavy, with symbols on it that he could not recognise. And his name; Natsu.

Reaching for the freshly cooked fish, he winced as he realised there was another new scrape on his paw -hand, his mind whispered, but he didn't know what that was- and licked the wound tentatively, the copper taste of blood tingling his tongue.

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**Upper Plane**

A small brunet boy dashed through the streets, white buildings blurring together in his haste. He yelped as he tripped on something he couldn't see, his arms cradling numerous brown wrapped packages. As he tumbled down he threw the packages into the air, wincing at the new scrape that was sure to appear on his hand before lifting his head up and reaching out to catch the boxes, 'plonk, plonk, plonk!' in a neat but precarious stack. The pedestrians watched for a second more before brushing the matter aside. The boy just sighed in relief; it wouldn't do to get Kawahira-ojisan angry at him for bringing damaged goods.

"Yo, Tsuna!" a familiar voice hollered.

The brunet turned to smile brightly at the tall raven haired boy approaching him. "Hey, Yamamoto-kun."

"Maa maa~ Tsuna, I keep telling you to call me Takeshi! You're too polite!" Admonished Yamamoto as the brunet blushed and his gold wings fluttered in embarrassment as Yamamoto grinned. "You okay? That was some fall!"

"Its fine, I just need to get these delivered to Kawahira-ojisan." He replied as he stood up and they started walking together at a more leisurely pace.

"What's in those anyway? Another -what do you call them- 'monkey?' paw or something?"

"Who knows, but the place is getting really cluttered with all these artefacts he keeps collecting."

"Ahaha, but he's running an antique store so it should be fine, right?"

The brunet just grumbled noncommittally, pouting.

"So, how are...the lessons going?"

The brunets face turned downcast as he shook his head in shame. "I really am Dame-Tsuna."

Yamamoto smiled encouragingly, "Don't say that! I'm sure you'll get it eventually!"

The brunet wondered about that, most people started learning to fly at the age of ten, and pretty much everyone could fly by twelve, he was now fifteen and hadn't lifted a foot off the ground. The wings themselves weren't a problem; everyone in the Upper Plane could shrink them to a small size and grow them easily. If fact, his wings were larger than most people's at full size. He wasn't really sure why he couldn't fly, he'd tried flapping them in different ways at various sizes and nothing worked. All he created were huge gusts of wind that blew things everywhere.

Without realising it, they'd reached the store. "Tadaima!"

"Okaerinasai," was hollered from the back of the store. Walking past the numerous display cases and artefacts, they entered the back of the store where a mess and a white haired man greeted them. As Yamamoto went about greeting the older man, Tsuna put down the boxes on top of another stack and went about examining the palm of his hand, wincing as he poked the scrape. He wondered why it wasn't healing like most injuries did.

He headed to the bathroom, examining his plain brown hair and honey coloured eyes as he fingered the ring that hung around his neck; the only memory left to him from his parents. Turning to the wound he first swabbed it with alcohol, wincing as he did so, then stared at the blood welling slowly in his palm. A vague hint of copper on his tongue.

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**Lower Plane**

There was grunt, and then a body fell to the floor. A brief flash of purple and a scream of agony. Heavy artillery could be heard going off as the sound of explosions rocked the building.

A brunet with blazing orange eyes and brown gravity defying hair stood in the middle of a group of armed men with horns and vicious tails. Some of the men had flames of various colours but only the brunet had a bright orange flame that flickered in the centre of his forehead and on his hands. The brunet's tail looked to be made of bone that extended from his tailbone, the vertebrae getting smaller toward the end before finishing with a large arrow shaped bone. He too had white horns that poked up from his fluffy hair.

He was fighting; slamming a hand through the chest of one man before throwing him into another with enough force to blow them back several feet and into a metal railing, there was a sharp crack as man's spine broke. He burned the face off the next man, grabbing his head and cracking it against the wall, smashing it open and spilling out bits of brain and blood.

All the men were soon met with similar fates. The brunet's face remained impassive as he took the men out with little to no effort, blood dyeing his white dress shirt a deep crimson red. A singular ring that hung around his neck; a keepsake from parents he'd never met, glinted with the light of flames. As the last man was taken down, half his head ripped open from where the brunet had grabbed his snarling jaws, he heard a crackle over his connection.

"Tenth, I'm done here and so is Pineapple-head."

Ah yes, now that the brunet wasn't distracted anymore, he realised he couldn't hear anymore explosions nor screams of agony. He quickly headed to the centre of the room where a slim ornate box stood, opening it a little he grinned widely at the contents before closing it and slipping it into his pocket.

"Great! I've got what we need, let's get out of here before the boss gets back or the goons start recovering."

Climbing into their black surveillance van he was greeted with the sight of worried green eyes checking him over and another heterochromatic gaze that was nonchalant.

"Kufufufu, spilled a lot of blood I see... Yoshi." Mukuro had curled horns the colour of his red eye and a leathery tail that ended with a spade, this type of tail was common among the Damned.

"Don't be so disrespectful with the Tenth, damn Pineapple!" Gokudera had a grey tail, furred and similar to that of a wolf, he also had wolf ears.

"Oya oya, the dog should just stay quiet and do as he's told." And the two delved into an argument as the bomber navigated the streets.

Yoshi sighed; he would have felt bad for the men if he didn't know that they'd probably be out for a few days before recovering. Immortality was a double edged sword. He did wonder from time to time what it'd be like to be on the Mortal Plane, to know that you can't survive getting your heart ripped out or could even perish from a meagre amount of blood loss.

He felt a dull throb coming from his hand and stared at it. Reaching over he pulled out a white cloth and cleaned his palm to find a single scrape on it, he probably got it from splintering someone's bone or something; those were sharp. He didn't get injured that often without it healing straight away, which apparently was an unusual ability for their kind as it still took time to heal wounds. He stared at the scrape wondering what made this one special, running his finger over it as he felt a vague taste of blood spill over his tongue.

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**A/N **I seem to be a generate-plot-as-you-write type of writer, so I have a vague idea of where this is going but nothing is solid. Except for who's the leader of which Plane. Well, there's three 'Tsuna's' to work with so I'm open to suggestions.

Will there be pairings? Perhaps, I'm still thinking on it.

This is also a tester for me, to see if I can write a fantasy AU. So updates for this would be considerably less than HIC. But it depends on my mood, this fic is meant to be dark.

Also, I'd love to hear of an animal/creature for Enma! Natsu needs a companion for getting into trouble with.

Tell me what you thought of this. Reviews are greatly appreciated! :D


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N **Thanks to those who reviewed, favourited and followed! I love you guys! :D

Short chapter is short. But please enjoy! 8)

**Disclaimer**: KHR does not belong to me.

* * *

**Lower Plane**

Yoshi examined the newly obtained piece in his hand; it was a jewelled chess piece, the black knight to be exact. There was only one of its kind. Reaching into the drawer next to him he took out another knight, this time a white one and a manic grin stretched across his face. These two pieces would get him closer to his goal; to defeat the leader of the Lower Plane, Reborn.

In the Lower Plane, life was like a game. Scattered in the plane were several jewelled chess pieces, with a black and white counter part. Each piece was unique, and when the two were bought together the user could gain strange powers. With the two Knights, Yoshi could now teleport to wherever he liked, except the other Planes since that would break the Law.

The Damned fought for the pieces, daily massacres happened just to obtain them. Not that anyone really died, short of going to the Mortal plane, the Damned did not die. What Yoshi was truly after was the King, or more specifically; the white king. The black king was already in his possession, sealed off in a place only he knew of. But the white king was elusive, according to rumour it hadn't been seen for about four centuries.

The kings were needed because you couldn't kill, really kill, the current leader without it.

Yoshi closed his eyes, resting his head against the chair, the two Jacks clenched in his hand. Wondering where the white king was, perhaps it was buried underground among the debris that collected up over time. He then jolted, blinking his eyes open.

'What was that?'

The strangest feeling of exhilaration had entered him for a moment, and an image that brushed past so fast that he had a hard time capturing it. Had he just seen a gold sky? He frowned, that couldn't be right. The Lower Plane had a permanent grey sky, dull and nothing in it.

* * *

**Upper Plane**

Tsuna stood at the edge of a cliff getting ready to try his hand (or wings in this case) at flying again. Normally he wouldn't be at a cliff at all, trying to launch off the ground but he'd decided that maybe he needed more height starting off to gain leverage on his wings. So here he was standing on the rocky outcrop, gazing at the wide expanse of land before him all the way to end of the sky island.

This was one of the reasons he _needed_ to learn how to fly, how else would he travel? So he took a deep breath, trying to calm the fear in him, this was something natural; all the Winged knew how to fly.

Taking one last breath to prepare himself, he ran forward and threw himself off the cliff, spreading his wings as wide as they could go.

The wind pushed his long bangs back in a wild disarray, he could feel it ruffling his feathers as he pushed down with his wings in powerful strokes. Just like how everyone else had done it, just like that time he'd watched Yamamoto flying care freely through the air with his large deep sea blue wings contrasting the golden sky.

And for a moment, perhaps longer, he felt it; that brilliant exhilarating feeling that rushed through his body and left him breathless in wonder, the feeling of flying. It was addicting.

But then it all went wrong, the feeling turned quickly to fear as the feeling of free falling took over, he flapped his wings as hard as he could but to no avail. He was falling and fast. It was still considerably slower than if he had no wings, but he knew the impact with the trees below was going to hurt.

He crashed head first into the tree, getting knocked out as he hit his temple on a branch and the rest of his body followed, deep scrapes formed as the branches bit into his body. He crashed to the ground in a heap of bloody wings and clothes. And lay still.

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**Mortal Plane**

Natsu was cornered, huge black snarling two-headed dogs with reptilian skin and canines the size of the lion cub surrounded him and his companion.

He had gone out in search of food. He didn't usually hunt as most things out there were larger and more vicious than him, the smaller creatures were usually friendlier and he did not wish to harm them. He had headed toward some of the abandoned warehouses at harbour side; hoping to catch a rodent or a bird, at least they were animals.

Upon arriving he had heard a desperate cry and had found himself bounding toward it. Behind one of the rust crusted buildings were the pack of dogs, snarling and jeering in their native tongue at something trapped between them. When one had shifted away enough, Natsu caught a glimpse of the trapped prey and had felt his jaw drop.

It was a creature with the same form as his other although this one had some odd clothes on. (Clothes were a luxury the more dominant creatures liked to wear but most didn't bother with such constricting things). The fur on his head -hair, his mind murmured- was a bright red that almost glowed in the midday sun and his eyes were a deep wine red with compass-like pupils. The creature also had a whip-like tail and long leathery ears reminiscent of the animals that usually dwelled in the roof of caves.

He had a strange burgundy red flame on his forehead and hands which he was using for fighting. Flames in the Mortal plane were rare but happened from time to time, it was one of the reasons that Natsu kept hidden. He didn't want to be taken and sold to another.

The red head was using a strange power with the flames, strange orbs that looked like they could crush with the force of gravity but they were no match for the dogs. Because although the Damned had powers that could give them an advantage in battle the Mortals had immense strength and physical prowess.

He was losing badly and with a loud cry he had fallen to a heavy swipe of claws. Natsu had then jumped in, unthinkingly. He didn't like pain nor did he like to see others in pain and when he saw the red head he felt some strange connection to him. And here he was, cornered against a rusted wall; the red head behind him was still conscious and holding his bleeding head.

Dodging a set of claws headed for him he took a deep breath and ROARED. The pressure instantly turning the dogs to stone. This was an odd power he knew nothing of, it didn't help with hunting though, and left him exhausted afterwards. Yet as he did so, the strangest feeling of exhilaration overcame him and a flash of gold and trees crossed his vision for the briefest of moments and then dissipated.

Shaking his head in confusion he stood on wobbly paws as he turned to the other creature who was staring at him in awe. The red flames on his hands were gone but the barest flicker remained on his forehead.

The creature reached out and Natsu flinched back.

"It's ok, I won't hurt you."

Natsu blinked, nobody had ever reached out without some intent of harm. But he was too tired to start running and so found himself in the warm arms of the other. Tentative fingers gently brushed his mane as the other murmured, still in awe, "sky flame".

"What's that?"

The other jerked in surprise. "Y-you can talk?!"

Natsu blinked, "yeah, those dogs were talking to you too."

"No! I mean, you can talk in my language; the language if the Damned! I couldn't understand what those dogs were saying!"

"Eh?!" And then the lion cub realised; his tongue twisted around the other language like it was natural but he'd never heard it in his life.

Just what was going on?

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**A/N** Oh, Enma's here~! Next chapter will have Giotto and maybe Reborn. Altogether it's probably very confusing but just so you know; there's no such thing as good and evil, the Planes are just seperate. And nobody is actually human.

Also my first time using line breaks... I hope it works.

Please Review! I'd love to hear your opinions and any questions! 8)


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